Dionne warwick tweeted to him, “I look hot.” Actor Bradley Whitford tweeted, “One of the reasons people love @SenSanders is because they know he would have worn the exact same thing if he had won the presidency.” Many, many, many people on Twitter have claimed that Sanders was their uncle or grandfather.
Sanders bobbleheads are coming. At one point on CBS News, Sanders was even asked to talk about his attire. He said: “In Vermont, we know something about the cold. And we’re not so concerned with good fashion. We just want to stay warm. “
The answer: Jen Ellis, a sophomore teacher in Essex Junction, Vt.
Among the things she is passionate about is Bernie Sanders, teaching her class (which she did during the pandemic in an outdoor classroom she built) and mittens.
And, dear reader, note: we are talking Mittens. NOT gloves.
“There’s a debate about whether mittens are better than gloves, and I’m obviously on the side who thinks mittens are better,” she told the Washington Post. “Your fingers have to work together to keep your hands warm, and in mittens, they can be together. With gloves on, they can’t.
Ellis and a partner started making mittens years ago as a side business. She cuts out woolen sweaters that are no longer in use and sews them in various combinations on a machine her mother gave her. She then covers them with recycled plastic fleece. Each pair takes about an hour.
Now that the two have children, there’s not much time left for mitt-making, though Ellis has said she tends to make them as gifts and an occasional craft fair over the holidays.
Ellis has long admired Sanders, saying, “As a public school teacher I can see how much he says about school debt forgiveness and free education and a lot of things he talks about. in its policies makes sense to people.
She also has a tangential connection to him: the senator’s daughter-in-law, Liza Driscoll, was the headmistress of the kindergarten that Ellis’s daughter attended. Although Ellis never met him, “When he lost the Democratic nomination for the 2016 nomination, I was really heartbroken for him because I felt like he probably wouldn’t run. again.
“I thought, ‘I’d like to make him a pair of mittens.’ And I did it, ”she said. “I totally remember the night I did it. I was like, “Is this crazy? I don’t even know this guy. But I wanted to make them for him, so I did.
So she sent them to the senator and thought it was over.
If you are an avid news reader and feel a little already seen, that’s because almost this exact scenario happened about a year ago. When Sanders was in the campaign at the end of 2019, the same mittens kept his hands warm.
During a stop in Pittsburgh, he spent one-on-one time with Alexandria Cutler, a registered dietitian at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. At one point, before her hour-long commute, she reportedly mentioned that her hands were cold. Sanders lent him his mittens.
A photo of Sanders handing the mittens to Cutler has gone viral. Someone created a parody Twitter account for mittens, with a biography that reads in part, “Mittens are the one thing that can keep Bernie’s hand gestures in check.”
Ellis found Sanders’ gesture, uh, “very touching because mittens are kind of a personal thing.” Inspired, she sewed 10 more pairs and sent them out to the countryside. She also reactivated an old Twitter account. “For a couple of weeks I tried to figure out what Twitter was about and, you know, follow,” she says. “But I just don’t have time for this.”
Now it starts again.
“I am truly honored that he is wearing them today. The fact that he always wears them is delicious and flattering, ”Ellis said. “There were people at the grand opening wearing world famous designer clothes. Then there was Bernie, who wore my mittens.
“All of my friends and family have the same mittens as Bernie too, so I think they all just feel a touch of glory – which is fun,” she added.
As the original tale of the Mittens began to creep in on opening day, that old Twitter account resurfaced. Soon Ellis’ inbox filled with emails – more than she can count, “because I can’t even find the end of my email.” By the time I got the tally, another hundred people emailed me. “It didn’t help the things that some organizations falsely reported doing more.
“I’m trying not to let that overshadow the obvious historical moment that was today,” she said, adding that she had watched it on a television with rabbit ears she had pulled from the cupboard. “I have a 5 year old daughter and it was great to watch the inauguration with her. It was really special, and this other thing with the mittens is kinda funny.
Above all, Ellis just feels touched.
“When you make things, when you create things – art, clothes, or whatever you make – you never know where they’re going to go. And the fact that these mittens were made with the sewing machine my mom gave me when I was 12 and some yarn that someone else had thrown away, and they came all the way to ‘at one of the most historic inaugurations of my life… ”she said, her voice fading. “It delights me.”
